Spanish Culture

 Spanish Culture

The world today is referred to as a global village. However, within this village, we all have unique identities that associate us within particular communities. The identities refer to our culture. Therefore, culture refers to the behaviors, language, norms, beliefs, knowledge, memories, and arts of a particular group of people. It is the whole way of life of the people (American Sociological Association, 2020). Material culture involves tangible things, possessions, or places which people use to describe their culture (Sociology, 2020). It includes things like homes, schools, hospitals, stadiums, places of worship, musical instruments, clothes, and food. However, non-material culture refers to conceptual principles we hold and our way of thinking on what comprises our culture and how we should relate within that culture. Its components include language, values, norms, beliefs, sanctions, folkways, and customs. In this cultural paper, I will describe the Spanish culture. As Spaniard, we love music, arts, and are deeply spiritual with the majority of us being Christians. We also love education, colourful clothing, and sporting activities.

Our material culture has unique sports, exotic foods, musical instruments, and clothing. For instance, for centuries, bullfighting has been synonymous with our culture. The sporting event starts in the streets where people engage bulls in running battles and culminates in arenas, where matadors fight the bulls to their death. After that, a victorious matador gets an ear as a trophy or two in exceptional fights. Besides, we have a unique festival known as La Tomatina, where people throw ripe tomatoes at each other. Additionally, our foods are adorable! Our most exceptional dishes come loaded with the Paella. We cook it from short-grained rice and chicken or rabbit stock. When cooking it, do not stir but let the rice simmer in the stock. Remember we eat it over lunchtime, mostly as a communal food. Further, clothes define our culture. Our men adorn white shirts and on top wear the high waist jackets called Traje Corto and women wear the Mantilla veils, especially during weddings. Besides, our colourful clothes are predominantly red, black and golden. Also, we have unique musical instruments called castanets. They are small, hollow, oval-shaped wooden instruments. Usually, folk dancers wear them on their thumbs and play them by using their wrists to strike them against their palms.

Our non-material culture is rich. It is unique when we look at our religion, naming of children, and customs. We have strong religious beliefs with most of the Spanish people professing Christianity and more particularly the Catholic religion. For instance, the Spanish conquistadors are accredited to the rise of Christianity in Latin America. When we name children, they receive the first name; then they receive the first surname from the first surname of the father and the second surname from the first surname of the mother. Therefore, this means that they do not have a middle name because the surnames are from the parents. Besides, it is customary that a for married women to retain their surnames. Hence they do not change their names by acquiring the husband’s name as is customary in many cultures. Also, it is customary for a visitor to shake hands when he is introduced in a social gathering and also when he is leaving. However, male friends can hug, or female friends can kiss each other’s cheeks, always starting with the left cheek.

Spanish culture has contributed significantly to other cultures. For instance, Spanish music has many contributions to western music. Moreover, Spanish music such as flamenco has been infused in Latin America culture after it was brought there by Spanish conquistadors (Moreno, 2016). Also, Spain has produced great artists. Of worth mentioning is Pablo Picasso, whose paintings dominated the 20^th century (Stewart, 2019). he greatly influenced the art of painting across the world in this era. Besides, the Spanish language is widely spoken by over 400 million people across the world and is one of the official languages in the European Union and the united nations.

There are some funny facts associated with Spanish culture. For instance, the first novel ever published, Don Quixote, was by a Spanish writer Miguel Cervantes (Katies, 2017). Also, Spaniards are known to speak in loud voices like they are in a fight! However, this is their character of being lively people. Infarct they are the gentlest people

Learning about other cultures is a great course. It helps us to understand and respect the unique facets of other people’s culture and also what we share in common. Moreover, we get to know how significant cultural aspects are to particular people. Hence we learn to celebrate it with them or help them preserve their culture for posterity. Therefore, we should never undermine other people’s cultures. According to Bizumic (2015), the practice of thinking that our culture is superior to others’ is known as ethnocentrism. It also leads to a person viewing other people’s cultures in contempt, hatred and hostility. Therefore, understanding other people’s cultures will help must respect them because their culture is the totality of their lives.